Pre-Heroic Characters

[Cwheeler]

Here is my take on having a tier before the heroic tier: Imaginatively named the 'Pre-heroic tier'!

View attachment Pre-heroic.pdf

I've gone for more of a 'how the characters became heroes' feel, rather than a 'let's run around and farm pigs!' situation.

There are a couple of things that I should probably explain:



Sparks vs Experience Points.

I have chosen not to use experience points because I wanted a system that encouraged storytelling rather than number crunching. Also, starting the characters on negative Xp or modifying the experience table seemed superfluous. As it stands, characters simply emerge from this system as first-level adventurers.



Racial powers.

I am unsure as to wether players should start out with them or gain them with their first spark. Do all Dragonborn have a breath attack? Can all Eladrin Teleport? Or is it only those with at least some spark of heroism?

Somehow I find the idea of dragonborn peasants and commoners being able to deal enough damage to easily kill each other en-masse… unsettling.



Backgrounds.

I plan to make backgrounds available to all characters, as in the dragon article on SoW. I find some of the backgrounds listed there to be a little too heroic in for my purposes, so I’ll probably make a generic list of the things that you can have and encourage players to make their own backgrounds.


Still to come:

Encounters, opponents, skill challenges and sample storylines for pre-heroic characters.

 

[FireLance]

Racial powers.

I am unsure as to wether players should start out with them or gain them with their first spark. Do all Dragonborn have a breath attack? Can all Eladrin Teleport? Or is it only those with at least some spark of heroism?

Somehow I find the idea of dragonborn peasants and commoners being able to deal enough damage to easily kill each other en-masse… unsettling.

For my own pre-Heroic system (which has just two levels, "Novice" and "Apprentice"), I pushed all 1/encounter racial abilities to the Apprentice level. This included dragon breath for dragonborn, fey step for eladrin, the multiclass power for half-elves, etc. Since only Apprentice level characters could use the second wind action, this effectively pushed the dwarf ability to use second wind as a minor action to Apprentice level, too. To balance humans, I also delayed the bonus feat to Apprentice level.

 

[Cwheeler]

For my own pre-Heroic system (which has just two levels, "Novice" and "Apprentice"), I pushed all 1/encounter racial abilities to the Apprentice level. This included dragon breath for dragonborn, fey step for eladrin, the multiclass power for half-elves, etc. Since only Apprentice level characters could use the second wind action, this effectively pushed the dwarf ability to use second wind as a minor action to Apprentice level, too. To balance humans, I also delayed the bonus feat to Apprentice level.

Just had a quick look at your system, and I must say that I like it. It seems like it will work as a good introduction to the game, and it probably doesn't have the same character vulnerability issues that my system has (although this vulnerability is intentional - I want them to feel like they're playing a standard person thrust into a dangerous situation).

I'll probably be delaying racial abilities till the first spark, and I'll be including the human's bonus feat in this.

Thanks for your feedback!